I just read the GP as saying that a smart camera could look at a plate, notice it is on the wrong make of car, and alert the officer, rather than just looking for stolen cars listed under that plate.
Exactly this. Organized auto theft rings go back and forth on the bridge with other valid plates (stolen) on their (also stolen) cars. These scanners can alert CHP if there was a chassis mismatch, if the software has this algorithm.
Ah.. you'd have to handle dealer and fleet plates, then. Or, just ignore them, mostly defeating the purpose of that. The kinds of people who play games with plates tend to be the kinds of people who get pulled over for simple violations anyways.
